Twist
by Romana Dante
Summary: A mysterious entity haunts the dreams of Rose and Mickey, as the TARDIS starts putting people to sleep, can the Doctor remain conscious long enough to solve the mystery? Some TenRose.


"Rose, you alright?" Mickey looked at her concerned as she yawned yet again.

"I'm fine," she answered sleepily, "Just a bit tired I suppose…"

"Can't imagine why," said the Doctor, now equally as concerned as Mickey, "We haven't done anything tiring today, and you got nine hours in last night…you're usually awake for hours by now…"

"I'm fine," Rose insisted again, "Perfectly…fine…." Her head fell forward, just barely being caught by the combined efforts of Mickey and the Doctor.

"That can't be good," said the Doctor seriously.

"Well she's just fallen asleep, hasn't she?" asked Mickey hopefully, "Maybe she's just really tired, like she said."

"I doubt it," said the Doctor, carefully examining Rose's eyes, "I know Rose, she'd normally be full of energy at this point in her day, it's about noon by your watch I'd imagine," He looked up at Mickey, his voice turning ominous, "Something wrong…"



_She opened the doors of the TARDIS to a warm, familiar scene. London, the Powel Estate, the doors opening directly next to the steps leading up to her flat. She smiled as she stepped out into the street, taking in the familiar sights and smells and sensations that said home. _

_She bounded up the staircase, backpack full to the brim of laundry in need of washing and carefully picked out souvenirs in need of owners. She very briefly wondered what had happened to the Doctor, but decided finding him could wait. She had other things to think about today, finding her flat key apparently being one of them. _

"_Where did it-" she dug through her pockets, finding nothing but an alien looking TARDIS key and some coins from Venus, "that's odd…" she said to herself, "I always have it with me…" After a moment of puzzlement, wondering on what particular adventure she may have lost her key on, she shrugged and knocked three times on the door to the flat, whistling a bit as she did. _

"_Read the note!" A voice, her mother's perhaps, screamed from beyond the door._

"_What?" for the first time, she noticed a note nailed to the door of the flat. **Rose- Down in front of estate, thought we'd meet you by TARDIS – Mum**__Rose gave a puzzled look and ran to the edge of the veranda, leaning over to look. Sure enough, on the street near the playground stood her mum and Mickey, waiting patiently for her about twenty feet away from the TARDIS. She ran down the steps towards them as enthusiastically as she had run towards the flat. She smiled and waved as she came towards them, hardly noticing the confused looks they were giving her as they did. She dropped her back and ran to her mother, embracing her in a hug. "Mum!" she said happily. To her surprise, her mum pulled back, taking Mickey with her. _

"_Who are you?" she asked, frightened. _

"_What?" _



The Doctor had Rose lying down on the small couch in the TARDIS console room, various different testing equipments taped to her head and arms. She gasped a little in her sleep, causing the readings to fluctuate a little on the screen before eventually returning to normal. Mickey looked on in confusing and worry, desperately trying to grasp what it was the Doctor was doing to her. The screen blipped.

"You're kidding me," the Doctor gasped, putting on his black, thick-rimmed glasses and gazing at the screen, "That can't be right…"

"What is it?" Mickey demanded, "What's wrong?"

"Well according to these readings," the Doctor spoke with air of disbelief, "she was put to sleep by the TARDIS…"

"That TARDIS, but how-"  
"It's a circuit malfunction," said the Doctor simply, "One of the TARDIS's circuits is designed to help certain species traveling in it fight jet-lag, or time-lag rather, I've never quite given it a name, maybe I should at some point…"

"Doctor!"

"Right, sorry. Anyway, the circuit assisted in giving TARDIS passengers a full nine hours of sleep, and helped keep them awake long enough to withstand passage through time and run away from infinite peril. With the circuit in disrepair, it seems to have decided that Rose needs a full night's sleep."

"So that's it then," said Mickey hopefully, "It's just the TARDIS making her nap. She'll be up in a few hours, yeah?"

"No," said the Doctor gravely, "At this point once the circuit puts someone to sleep, it never wakes them up again. She's going to stay permanently asleep unless I can find a way to fix this."

"Which you can do, can't you? You can fix anything…"

"I hope I can," said the Doctor worriedly, "This has never happened before…"



"_It's me mum," said Rose pleadingly, "It's Rose!" _

"_Rose Tyler?" asked Mickey skeptically, "I don't think so." _

"_Mickey! It's me! It's really me, Rose Tyler!" She turned to Jackie, "Mum?" Jackie came up to Rose and stroked her hair, looking straight into her eyes. Abruptly, she took her hand away. _

"_You're not my Rose," she said, "You might have been, once, but you're not now." _

"_What?" Jackie stepped back to stand with Mickey, the two of them glaring at her as if she were an imposter. _

"_Where's my Rose?" Jackie demanded, "What've you done with her?!" _



The lights of the TARDIS had started to lower, creating a more relaxed atmosphere then was typical. Several times as he handed the Doctor various different pieces of equipment below the grated floor of the console, he caught himself starting to nod off, yawning deeper then even Rose had before she fainted. After a moment the Doctor looked at him worriedly.

"Are you alright Mickey?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Mickey answered, yawning, "It's the lights."

"Right," the Doctor looked deep in thought for a moment before suddenly coming back, "Mickey! Could you run down to the kitchen and get us some tea? Can't fix a broken circuit without tea, can we?" Mickey eyed him suspiciously.

"And there I thought I was being useful for once," he said bitterly, "how'd you want your tea?"

"Two sugars, thanks," replied the Doctor, "and milk, but not too much milk or it'll drown out the actual tea. I hate that, don't you? Who was it…Edgar Allen Poe! Always used to put too much milk in his tea, rubbish it was, no wonder all his poems were so depressing all the time…"

"I'll go an get that tea then," said Mickey, desperately trying to be spared from the Doctor's rambling. He jumped up through the grating and began to walk out of the console and down the hallway. He yawned a few times as he walked, nothing big. Everyone get's tired every now and then. But as he passed the Doctor's study, about three rooms down from the kitchen, Mickey suddenly found it extremely hard to keep his eyes open. His legs began to feel heavier as he walked, matching the heaviness in his eyelids as he stopped to take a short rest. "Gotta stay awake," he said to himself, "I can't fall asleep…" His head became heavy as he fell to the floor, the dimly lit TARDIS hallway around him becoming completely black.



_He was standing alone in the dark, not quite sure where he was. Around him he could hear the sounds of people going about their daily live, normal city noises, London sounds. He couldn't see anything, just hear and smell, all other senses apparently cut off. He tried to shout "hello" hoping desperately that one of the Londoners he couldn't see would help him out, but nothing came. He was blind and mute. _

"_Affirmative!" shouted a small, robotic voice, "Affirmative master!" Mickey jumped as a small, robotic dog rolled towards him out of the darkness. K-9, the tin dog, Mickey's best friend. _

_Wait a minute…_

_What about Rose, Mickey wanted to ask, why would he need to be best friends with a tin dog when he had Rose? Didn't he?_

"_Follow me." The dog instructed, and Mickey couldn't help himself but obey. They walked and rolled further into the darkness, the distant sounds of London soon being replaced by what sounded like old-fashioned swing music. The dog stopped abruptly in the center of the darkness, rolling around to face him. "Turn around," the dog instructed. Mickey turned, and regretted it almost instantly. _

_In front of him stood the Doctor and Rose, embraced in a tight, loving hug. Their eyes were closed, both clearly enjoying the sensation of being so close to each other. A broad grin was present on both their faces. Mickey watched awkwardly from his place next to the tin dog, kicking an imaginary stone on the ground. He knew all about them, their relationship wasn't news to him, he'd seen it on so many different levels the sight of them hugging hardly mattered anymore. _

_But it still hurt. _



Just as the Doctor expected, Mickey didn't return with the tea. It was a shame, since the Doctor was starting to feel a bit drowsy himself, the TARDIS's malfunctioning circuit clearly taking much longer to affect him. The tea, apart from providing him with just the right amount of caffeine to keep him upright, had actually been a key element needed in the repair. Having lost a multitude of different power sources over the years, the Doctor had managed to rig a few of the circuits and devices to run on tea. It had sounded a bit odd at the time, but it had actually proven to be a quite effective and rather abundant power source. The only issue was trying not the drink the tea he needed to run the circuits.

He jumped up out of the grating and took a last look at Rose. She was lying on the couch, unmoved from when they had brought her in. Her eyes fluttered rapidly under her eyelids and she twitched a little, indicating she was either having a highly satisfying dream or a nightmare. With the chaos the TARDIS was currently causing in her mind, he doubted very much that her dreams would be sweet. _Poor Rose,_ he thought to himself, gently stroking her hair before turning to walk out of the room. He stopped himself for a moment; debating whether or not to look into her dreams, figure out what really was going on inside the mind of Rose Tyler when she couldn't control her thoughts. He shook the desire off quickly and walked out, convinced it would be an enormous invasion of her privacy to do so. He didn't need to do something like that, he thought, he had no reason to delve into Rose's personal thoughts and dreams, of course not. It's not like he had anything to worry about in there, right?

Right?



"_Mum! I haven't done anything to her!" Rose found herself fighting the urge to go down on her knees and beg her mum to recognize her, "It's me!" _

"_You're not my Rose!" Jackie shouted again, "You're nothing like her!" _

"_I am! I really am!" Rose was in near tears now, desperate to be known. _

"_How can you be Rose?" Mickey snarled at her, "You're not even human!"_

"_What?" _

"_You heard him!" shouted Jackie, "You're an alien!"_

"_A thing!" finished Mickey. Rose didn't know how to respond. Her, Rose Tyler, aged nineteen from the Powel Estate, an alien? What on earth were they talking about? What did they mean? _

"_I'm not alien!" she burst out, "I'm human! You know that!" Jackie and Mickey stayed silent, glaring at her for a brief moment. _

"_Yeah well, you might have been human once," said Mickey, "But you're definitely not now." _

"_But I-" and suddenly it dawned on her, "Is it because I've been traveling with the Doctor? Because he's an alien, you think it's rubbing off on me or something?" _

"_Whose the Doctor?" asked Jackie nastily._

"_Your new boyfriend?" Mickey snarled again. _

"_He's…he's…where is he?" It suddenly occurred to Rose that she hadn't seen the Doctor at all since she'd landed. She became sure he could sort this all out. She might have just been denied the love of her mother and Mickey, but at least she still had the Doctor. Frantically, she began searching her surroundings. "Doctor!" she shouted, "Doctor!" Mickey smiled._

"_Would that be him then?" he pointed behind her, a dark grin on his face. Rose turned around towards the TARDIS, barely noticing a soft, formal waltz playing in the background. She gasped as she saw what Mickey had been pointing at. _

_The Doctor was standing with a woman; his one arm holding hers while his other arm was around her waist. She was dressed in elaborate 18th century décor, with blond hair neatly put up into a curled hairstyle only ever seen in museum portraits. Rose knew the woman almost immediately as Madame De Pompadour, the Doctor's dance partner. The waltz music grew louder as the two began to dance along the pavement, both smiling and looking lovingly into each other's eyes. Rose watched as tears began to fall down her cheeks. _

"_Some boyfriend he was," she heard Mickey say behind her. She turned to glare at him, with her tear stained face and devastated expression she was sure to make him say something comforting. She found, however, that they were gone once she turned. Jackie, Mickey, and the typical London scenery around her had disappeared, leaving nothing but a vast black emptiness and the Doctor's waltz. She turned and watched, heartbroken, as the Doctor and his partner danced themselves into the darkness, disappearing just as Mickey and Jakie had. Rose found herself alone. Trapped in a cold, dark, alien environment with two words written in large letters below her. Bad Wolf. _



_It doesn't bother me, Mickey kept trying to tell himself, it's been over between him and Rose for a long time now, and it doesn't bother him. He watched as Rose gave the Doctor a light kiss on the cheek before dashing off into the surrounding darkness. The Doctor stood alone in the empty space, fiddling with the sonic screwdriver. Mickey felt himself being pushed forward by the metal dog at his feet. He walked hopefully towards the Doctor. "Is there anything I can do?" he asked. The Doctor looked at him puzzled. _

"_About what?" _

"_I dunno," answered Mickey uncertainly, "about anything. Do you need me for anything, is there anything I can do to help?" He looked at the Doctor with a bizarre and incredibly urge to assist, to be as accepted in this alien's ship as his best friend Rose had been. The Doctor gave him a cold look. _

"_I don't think so, Rickey," he said flatly, "I don't think so." The Doctor turned away from the devastated Mickey, walking towards the TARDIS, which had only just now appeared in the darkness. Rose stood smiling in the doorway, embarrassing the Doctor before joining him inside. Mickey ran as fast as he could towards the blue box, banging his fists on the doors and desperately trying not to be forgotten. _

"_Wait!" he screamed as the TARDIS slowly disappeared in front of him, "You forgot me! Doctor! Rose! You forgot me!" He soon found himself pounding on open air as the blue police box disappeared completely from sight. He was on his knees, alone, dejected and forgotten by his two best friends. Behind him, the tin dog came rolling up to him, rubbing his arm with its nose._

"_Friend?" is asked him in its typical robotic voice. _

"_Friend." Mickey grudgingly agreed. _



The Doctor sighed as he walked past the unconscious figure of Mickey on the floor. He didn't seem to be having a particularly nice dream either, though he was significantly less frantic than Rose. It was up to him now, as usual, to fix this whole mess and get his companions back. He yawned. That was, of course, if he could stay awake long enough himself to go through the repairs. It had been startling how hard it had been to walk from the console to the kitchen, he never remembered being this tired before. He yawned again as he put the kettle on, using the sonic screwdriver on the oven to make it boil faster. He could feel himself starting to become drowsier, his eyelids growing more and more heavy as the tea kettle continued to boil. He was struck with a sudden urge to sit down at the kitchen table, maybe put his head down for a few minutes, only a few minutes…

No, stop it. He had to stay awake, he was the only one that could save Rose and Mickey and he knew it. He tried jumping up and down, blinking a few times before babbling insensately at the wall. He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and wrote down equations, calculating obsessively, _anything_ to keep his mind alert. Before long the teakettle came to a boil, and the Doctor was never happier in his life to hear it.

"Tea'll keep me up," he said, pouring himself a cup before taking the rest with him into the console room, "It _has_ to keep me up…" He took a last look at Mickey before leaving, a part of him wishing he could trade places. The Doctor couldn't remember the last time he'd had a good night's sleep; he'd never needed one.



"_We are the same," said the tin dog._

"_Yeah I suppose we are," Mickey chuckled a bit, "You sound like one of those clockwork robots. 'We are the same', planning on chopping my head off anytime soon?" _

"_Negative, master."_

"_When did we start the whole 'master' thing? That's the Doctor, isn't it?"_

"_Negative," said the dog, "The Doctor is gone." _

"_Say that again?" _

"_The Doctor is gone." Mickey thought about it and sighed. _

"_I guess he is gone, isn't he? Figures. I always thought he'd just leave me after a while, probably got sick of having me around…" he shivered, "did it just get colder?" _

"_It was not the Doctor," said the dog plainly. _

"_Yeah really," he shivered again, "Are you sure it didn't just get colder?" _

"_It was not the Doctor," the dog repeated. _

"_I know that, the Doctor's gone! He didn't make it cold, what did?" _

"_Fate," said the dog. _

"_Fate?" _

"_Turn around." Mickey stood up and felt an icy gust of wind hit his face. He turned around slowly, shivering as he did. The comforting sounds of London had long since faded, and all that could be heard was the chattering of his teeth. In front of him, once he turned, stood a woman in a long, simple black dress. She stood in the shadows of the dark, her black hair and eyes matching the air as well as her attire. She smiled almost wickedly as Mickey saw her. Tempting, seductive, and terrifyingly graceful, she extended a long arm out to Mickey. He took a deep breath, and took her hand in his own. _



"_I am the Bad Wolf…I create myself…I take the words…I scatter them…in space and time…"_

"_Stop it!" _

"_Everything must come to dust…"_

"_Stop it!"_

"_All things…everything dies…" _

"_I said stop it!_

"_I can see everything…all there is…all there was…" _

"_Shut up!"_

"_All that ever could be…" _

"_I said SHUT UP!" Rose banged her fist on the ground, pleading desperately to make the voices stop. They were saying things, disturbingly familiar things. It was as if the words came from a distant past she couldn't quite remember. A terrible event that had occurred without her knowing. They were frightening and wise, ancient and omnipotent, the most terrifying thing about them being that they sounded like her own voice saying them in the darkness. The words spray-painted in large, ugly letters below her feet. _

_Bad Wolf. _

"_Like a twist of fate," she heard someone say. She looked around her, trying to find the source of the words. It hadn't been her voice this time, though it was female. This voice had sounded lower, a bit less desperate, a bit more sure of herself. _

"_Who are you?!" Rose shouted at the air. _

"_Fate…" the voice whispered. _

"_What?" A low violin began suddenly, playing a waltz similar to the one played earlier, only slower and more dramatic. She looked down at the ground as the words "Bad Wolf" disappeared beneath her, to be filled only by even more darkness. Then came a light. A small spotlight next to her, gleaming brightly on a tall man in a pinstripe suit and tie, the Doctor. He bowed to her as she stood up, and the two of them began to dance. They danced in the limitless dark around them, Rose feeling confused, embarrassed and overjoyed all at once. She leaned towards him, resting her head on his shoulder as she did, closing her eyes and enjoying the experience. _

_Then came the ticking of a clock. Soft and rhythmic, it blended in with the music so well she hadn't noticed it at first. Then she felt the Doctor pulling away, her head no longer resting on the soft material of his pinstripe suit. She opened her eyes and gasped. _



It shouldn't take much longer, the Doctor told himself as he yawned and poured the hot tea into the tank below the circuitry, it shouldn't take much longer. All he had to do now was connect…what was it…those wires…

Nope, he told himself again, stay focused. It would do no good dosing off now, no matter how appealing it sounded. He took another sip of his highly caffeinated tea with three sugars, which seemed to have no effect on his drowsiness. The urge to sit or lie down, even just for a second, was becoming unbearable. If he didn't fix things soon, he would have no choice but to succumb to it. Then the light of day and adventure would be only in his dreams, as well as his companions.

He sighed. His companions.

He wasn't sure why, but for some odd reason he felt responsible for all this. It was his TARDIS after all, he should have been more careful in checking this sort of thing. Just because he didn't get "time-lag" and didn't really need to sleep didn't mean Rose and Mickey didn't. They were human. Certain TARDIS functions worked differently with their presence, and the Doctor should have remembered that. To be fair though, the specific "sleep circuit" malfunctioning had never been broken before. He had barely even noticed it before. It was one of the few things that always seemed to work right on his ship. Lovely that it should pick now to fail him.

He yawned again as he tried to remember which wire to dip in the tea and which to leave dry. He began to wonder how much more of this he could take. How much more could even his body stand before it failed him?



_The two of them were dancing, Mickey and this woman. K-9 appeared to have disappeared long ago, the two dancers being the only thing currently in existence. Mickey had never fancied dancing, never been quite good at it. His feet had always gone in the wrong directions, or stepped in places he didn't want them to step, such as on a girl's foot usually. Tonight though, he seemed perfectly in step. Everything seemed to just click as he danced with this strange woman in black. It was all working. It was perfect. _

"_Who are you?" he asked her, not really minding when she didn't respond. Being silent seemed to suit her in a bizarre, frightening sort of way. Mickey thought it would have ruined it if she had told him too much. She didn't say anything, just kept smiling in a seductive, intoxicating sort of way. She was leading him in the dance, not him leading her. It became more and more apparent as she started moving them across the darkness, pulling him softly with each step. The air once again became cold, a chill going down Mickey's spine as they danced further into the dark. His feeling of nearly tense comfort started to disappear to be replaced with complete and utter fear. _

_Drills. Saws. Screams. It was all he could hear around him. Still devoid of sight, the noises rang out into the darkness, piercing his ears as they danced. His breath was visible as he was forced to listen to the sounds of absolute torture around him. The woman's dark smile never faded as she led him on. _

"_No," he said, terrified, "What is this? Where are you taking me? No more!" She shook her head in clearly false pity and continued dancing him along, the screams becoming louder as she did. The pain around him was overwhelming and Mickey began to wonder who exactly the tortured people around him were. _



_Rose couldn't believe it. It was her again. Reinette Poisson, Madame du Pompadour. The Doctor was once again dancing along with his 18th century mistress, the a someone confused or emotionless expression on his face. He looked as if he was enjoying the dance, but it wasn't quite as passionate as Rose had seen earlier. The Doctor looked unsure, happy, but unsure. _

_Then as quickly as Reinette had showed up, she was gone. She led the Doctor closer to Rose, and with a kiss, vanished before their eyes. The two of them, Rose and the Doctor, were left awkwardly alone, not quite sure where to go from here. The music stopped for a moment, until Rose couldn't bare it anymore. She walked up to him, alone and confused, and slapped him, right on the cheek. He touched his palm to the mark and silently mouthed his concern. Rose rolled her eyes, the Doctor smiled, and the music started again. _

_They danced, closer this time, her head resting against his chest. She could hear the beating of his two hearts, perfectly in rhythm to the music in the background. She felt his head touch hers and blushed a bit at the touch. It was perfect, the two of them seemed to fit perfectly. They were beautifully in step, neither of them missing a beat or stepping on a foot. Before long though, the comforting sound of the Doctor's heartbeat started to change. She became disturbed as the rhythmic beating of his hearts started to sound far too much like the ticking of a clock. _



This was new. It was typically the Doctor's body fighting his mind, both of them racing against each other, typically equally as fast though his mind usually won out. This time though, it was both. The Doctor was being fought by his mind and his body at the same time, both screaming with exhaustion, demanding to be put to rest. Something deep inside him told him that he _needed _to stay up, he needed to stay awake or the consequences would be far more immense then he could possibly imagine. That something was ignored.

Before even he himself knew it, the Doctor was on the floor, lifeless like the rest of his ship's occupants, all hope of awakening shattered.



_Mickey couldn't bear it. It was all around him, pain, torture, utter and complete terror. The piercing sounds of saws and drilling. The cold. _

_All through it, the woman had just kept leading him on, the same dark, twisted and seductive smile on her face throughout. He wanted to shout at her, he wanted to ask her how she could possibly be so happy with the thousands of unseen people dying around them, but nothing came. He was mute again, unable to speak or stop this woman from leading him through the pain and the chaos. It was all too much to bear. _

_Then the drilling stopped. The screaming began to quiet, and the torture ceased. Mickey looked around in wonderment, trying desperately to figure out what happened. Without warning, the woman let go of his hand, disappearing to somewhere in the distance. For a moment the silence was deafening, until it started to rain. _

"_What the hell…" Mickey suddenly regained the ability to speak as the light falling rain wet his hair and clothes. He could hear it pitter-patter on the ground, though he had no idea where in the darkness the ground actually was. There was a sorrowful feeling in the air, perhaps mourning the tortured people from moments earlier. _

_Then he heard footsteps. In the distance he heard footsteps, coming out of the rain. The woman in black was returning, this time with someone else in tow. As the two came closer Mickey suddenly realized who it was. _

_Rose Tyler. _

_The girl who had abandoned him for another man a few short minutes ago stood sobbing in front of Mickey, her hand holding that of the woman in black. The woman took Mickey's hand and gave it to Rose, nodding and smiling mysteriously as she did. She bowed her head and stepped back, disappearing into the storm. Mickey took Rose's other hand, and looked deep into her sad, crying eyes. There were so many terrible things he could say right now, so much anger he could throw in her face and watch it consume her. He wanted to, but he didn't. He tried to desperately to meet her gaze, but she looked down everytime. She refused to look him in the eye, tears dripping down to the ground like the rain all around them. "Rose, what's wrong?" he asked. She cried. "Rose what's wrong?" She looked up at him, her eyes wide with terror and despair, pure, deep despair that Mickey couldn't possibly begin to comprehend. _

"_What's happened?" he demanded, no response, "Rose?! Rose, what's wrong? Rose, tell me! Rose? Rose!" And then it all disappeared. _



"Rose!" he woke with a start on the floor of some random hallway. How the hell did he get there? Where was Rose? Was she hurt? Was she alright? Why had she been so sad…

Mickey shuddered at the thought of it, that miserable sight of Rose. He hoped she never had to go through that, whatever it had been.



_Rose looked up and nearly screamed. A woman in a black dress, with black eyes and hair to match, was standing in the shadows next to the Doctor. She was smiling, a devilish smile that made Rose cling closer to the Doctor, perhaps for protection, perhaps to prove he was hers. She would never know. _

_Slowly the woman approached, slowly, and tapped the Doctor on the shoulder. The Doctor looked up, and gasped when he saw her, a strange look of recognition on his face as he did. The woman made a signal with her finger, telling the Doctor to come. She walked slowly backwards, the Doctor following along as if in a trance. Rose clung to the Doctor's arm, fully intending to go with them no matter where they were going. There was no way she was going to leave him like that, no way she was going to let anything take him away from her. Not now. Not now that she had had him in her arms, perfectly in tune with him and everything around him. She was going to stay with him forever. _

_Then the Doctor turned, and looked at her with mournful eyes. To Rose's horror, he forcefully pulled his arm away from Rose, and took the woman in black's hand. Rose tried again to run after them, the Doctor again forcing her away, the action clearly causing him as much pain as it was her. _

_Rose stood still, and watched as the Doctor walked away into the distant darkness, hand and hand with the strange woman in black. She turned her head to look at Rose, as if to say a final word. "A strange twist of fate…" the woman said, and disappeared with the Doctor. Never to be seen by her again. Rose fell to the ground, tears streaming down her face. _

"_You're not my Rose…"_

"_I am the Bad Wolf…"_

"_You may have been human once…"_

"_I create myself…" _

"_But you're definitely not now…"_

"_All that ever could be…"_

"_You're nothing like her…"_

"_A strange twist of fate…" _

_The world went dark as one final voice joined the mix. _



"Doctor!" Rose panted as she woke up, groggy and scared still all at once. It was a dream…just a dream. She looked around at the familiar sight of the TARDIS console room, lit a bit dimmer then usual, but still warm and friendly compared to her nightmare. She sniffed the air…did it smell like tea?

"Rose?" Mickey burst through the door to the console, looking equally as shaken as she was, "Is it really you?"

"Last I checked," said Rose, running up to give him a hug, "you alright?"

"Bad dream," he answered shakily, "you?"

"Bad wolf," she said automatically, the words rolling off her tongue as if someone else had put them there, "I meant yeah, bad dream."

"Right," said Mickey, "It's all over now…I think…where's the Doctor?"

"I dunno, I thought he'd be with you. He fixed whatever it was that put us to sleep, didn't he?"

"He must've…" Mickey trailed off, suddenly noticing that the entire console room smelled like tea, "I was suppose to be getting him some tea…smells like he got himself some after all though."

"That's great, but where's he…" and that's when she found him. In a hole in the grated floor, surrounded by wires and a spilled cup of tea, lay the Doctor, completely unconscious and dead to the world. "Oh my God…" She ran for him, jumping down into the floor, landing nearly on top of him in the wires. Mickey followed and the two began an examination.

"Well he's not dead…" Mickey began.

"Brilliant!" said Rose sarcastically, "He may be knocked out, but at least we know he's going to keep his face!"

"Just trying to help!"

"Yeah? Try a bit harder!" she softened, "I mean…"

"It's ok," said Mickey, genuinely unoffended, "I think he's just asleep."

"Well that's good," said Rose, "We just have to wait for him to wake up, yeah?"

"I don't think so," said Mickey, "There was something he was fixing down here, a circuit or something that making everyone fall asleep."

"And you don't think he fixed it?"

"I dunno, maybe…" Mickey looked unsure, his typical "Mickey the idiot" expression on full blast.

"What did he need to do?" Rose demanded.

"How should I know? All he ever told me was that Edgar Allen Poe makes bad tea or something, nothing actually important…"

"Tea…" Rose repeated the word, "That might just work…"

"What?" Without a moment's hesitation, Rose grabbed the Doctor's only partially drunk tea cup and poured it on his head, hoping desperately that she wasn't crazy. Sure enough, within seconds his eyes shot open.

"Fate!" he gasped as he woke up.

"Fate?" Rose asked. The Doctor shook his head.  
"Nothing, never mind…" he blinked a few times, gradually becoming more and more alert, "you're up?" he asked.

"We're up," she replied, "Bit shaken though, right Mickey?"  
"Yeah…" Mickey seemed lost in his own little world, clearly thinking about other things then the Doctor. Rose shrugged.

"I suppose it's safe to say you fixed the whatever it was, then?" she asked.

"No," answered the Doctor, looking puzzled from Mickey to Rose, "I didn't…I don't suppose you two dreamed while you were sleeping, did you?"

"I definitely did," said Rose, shivering at the thought of her world of darkness and bad wolves, "And I'm pretty sure Mickey did, right Mickey?"

"Yeah, I definitely dreamed," Mickey shuddered at the thought of his as well, all those screams and Rose in tears. The Doctor looked at them again, his gaze switching rapidly from one of their eyes to another. He sighed.

"I fixed it," he said, "it's alright."

"But I thought-"

"I lied," he lied, "I must had fixed it before I fell asleep." Rose nodded and the three of them sat for a moment in silence, not quite sure what to say.

"We probably shouldn't be hanging out in the wires," Mickey said suddenly, "might break something."

"Good point," said the Doctor, standing up to jump back onto the floor, "Let's go then, things to do, places to see, planets to save…thought we might want a break before we go."

"Yeah," said Rose, clearing acting happier then she was, "A rest would be great."

"Ok then," said the Doctor, "then I'll meet you both back in here when you're ready, alright with you Mickey?" Mickey turned his head.

"Right, yeah, that's good…" The three of them stood silently in the console room before parting, not wanting to be separated but at the same time desperately wanting to be alone.



That night Rose sat alone in her room, a pad of paper and big sharpie marker in her hand. Two words were written on the paper, Bad Wolf.

Across the hall, Mickey say alone in his room, a laptop on his desk, looking up the definition of "tin dog" on the internet, and editing it.

In the console room, the Doctor shut the grating and started fiddling with a button on the console. It hadn't been the TARDIS that had caused the involuntary sleep and nightmares, one look at Rose and Mickey's eyes could prove that. Something else had caused it, something with far more power then the TARDIS. A chill went up his spine as the air grew colder, he turned around.

A woman with coal black hair and eyes, in a matching black dress stood at the edge of the console room, leaning in the shadows against one of the usually bright organic pillars. She smiled darkly, power and seduction in her eyes. The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "I've seen you before."

"Yes you have," said the woman.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Who are _you?_"

"Shouldn't you know?"

"I do know," the woman smiled, walking slowly towards him, "do you?" The Doctor looked tense, his expression unreadable to anyone but the woman. She smiled wickedly and turned away, "Goodbye Doctor." She walked towards the door, but vanished before she got near them. In the back the Doctor watched the spot she had stood, wide eyed and deeply concerned.

"Fate."


End file.
